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Maximilian II, 1811–64, king of Bavaria

(Encyclopedia)Maximilian II, 1811–64, king of Bavaria (1848–64), son and successor of Louis I. He had liberal tendencies and was a patron of art and learning. He hoped to create a union of small German states u...

Manuel II, 1889–1932, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Manuel II, 1889–1932, king of Portugal (1908–10), second son of Charles I. He succeeded to the throne after the assassination of his father and elder brother, but in Oct., 1910, a revolution dethr...

John II, king of Aragón and Sicily

(Encyclopedia)John II, 1397–1479, king of Aragón and Sicily (1458–79), king of Navarre (1425–79), count of Barcelona. He succeeded his brother, Alfonso V, in Aragón, Catalonia, and Sicily and became king of...

Francis II, king of the Two Sicilies

(Encyclopedia)Francis II, 1836–94, last king of the Two Sicilies (1859–61), son and successor of Ferdinand II. A weak ruler, he let his ministers follow his father's reactionary policy. Faced with the growing m...

Ferdinand II, king of the Two Sicilies

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand II, 1810–59, king of the Two Sicilies (1830–59), son and successor of Francis I. Although initially he sought to improve the wretched conditions of his kingdom, he soon relapsed into the...

Leopold II, Holy Roman emperor, king of Bohemia and Hungary

(Encyclopedia)Leopold II, 1747–92, Holy Roman emperor (1790–92), king of Bohemia and Hungary (1790–92), as Leopold I grand duke of Tuscany (1765–90), third son of Maria Theresa. Succeeding his father, Holy ...

Sophia Dorothea

(Encyclopedia)Sophia Dorothea sōfīˈə dŏrəthēˈə [key], 1666–1726, electress of Hanover, wife of Elector George Louis (later King George I of England); sometimes called Sophia Dorothea of Celle. Married to...

Frederick William IV

(Encyclopedia)Frederick William IV, 1795–1861, king of Prussia (1840–61), son and successor of Frederick William III. A romanticist and a mystic, he conceived vague schemes of reform based on a revival of the m...

Leopold I, prince of Anhalt-Dessau

(Encyclopedia)Leopold I, 1676–1747, prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1693–1747). He served as field marshal in the Prussian army and was nicknamed “the Old Dessauer.” As chief military adviser to King Frederick Wil...

Poland, partitions of

(Encyclopedia)Poland, partitions of. The basic causes leading to the three successive partitions (1772, 1793, 1795) that eliminated Poland from the map were the decay and the internal disunity of Poland and the eme...